China top Croatia 2-1 in women's beach handball at Chengdu World Games

In the preliminary competitions at the 2025 Chengdu World Games, the Chinese women's beach handball team defeated Croatia 2-1 in the opening contest on Thursday, to get off to a winning start in Group B.

Beach handball games feature two 10-minute sets, and the team prevailing in each period is awarded one point overall. China started slowly and dropped the opening set 20-13. But the hosts came from behind in the second period to level the overall score at 1-1.

That brought up a golden goal session, which saw each side field five players for a series of one-on-one battles. The Chinese ladies took the decider 8-6 to claim a 2-1 overall victory. They will later face Argentina and Portugal as the action continues in the group stage.

Meanwhile, over on the men's side, China lost to Tunisia 2-0 in their opener.

In other disciplines, the Chinese women's lacrosse team made a historic debut at the World Games, despite a 24-2 defeat against Britain in the opening contest of the group stage. Only the women's sixes version of lacrosse is featured in Chengdu, and China qualified automatically as the host nation.

The British squad dominated from start to finish, building a 15-0 lead at halftime. In the second half, Zou Kexuan and Chen Li each scored goals for the Chinese side, but the home team struggled to further challenge the opposing goalkeeper.

China will face old rivals Japan in their second preliminary game on Friday.

Another sport that featured a historic debut for China was men's inline hockey, and standing out in a 20-1 loss to the USA in the opening contest, Liu Chaoyi scored the host country's first-ever goal at the World Games.

China will face Namibia in their second contest on Friday.